Social anxiety and dynamic social reinforcement learning in a volatile environment.

ABSTRACT: Adaptive social behavior requires learning probabilities of social reward and punishment, and updating these probabilities when they change. Given prior research on aberrant reinforcement learning in affective disorders, this study examines how social anxiety affects probabilistic social reinforcement learning and dynamic updating of learned probabilities in a volatile environment. N=222 online participants completed questionnaires and a computerized ball-catching game with changing probabilities of reward and punishment. Dynamic learning rates were estimated to assess the relative importance ascribed to new information in response to volatility. Mixed-effects regression was used to analyze throw patterns as a function of social anxiety symptoms. Higher social anxiety predicted fewer throw

SUBMITTER: Beltzer ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7451209 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature